Vikings near Top of List for Trey Lance, According to Oddsmakers
The San Francisco 49ers are heading into the 2023 regular season with Brock Purdy at QB1, Sam Darnold at QB2, and likely Brandon Allen at QB3.
The odd man out is former 1st-Rounder Trey Lance, for whom the 49ers surrendered a king’s ransom during the 2021 NFL Draft.
Vikings near Top of List for Trey Lance, According to Oddsmakers
The 49ers front office will reportedly listen to trade offers for the 23-year-old, as keeping him on the depth chart at QB3 would evidently create a distraction.
And according to oddsmakers, when the Lance trade sweepstakes truly heat up — which could be as early as now — the Minnesota Vikings will be near the top of the list.
Fox Sports published hypothetical Lance odds on Wednesday, and they are as follows:
- Atlanta Falcons: +300
- Minnesota Vikings: +350
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers: +500
- Washington Commanders: +1000
- New England Patriots: +1200
- Tennessee Titans: +1500
The Falcons employ Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke at quarterback, and no one is too sure if Ridder will blossom into a true-blue QB1. After Atlanta, Minnesota has the second-best probability to swing a deal for Lance, a native Minnesotan.
Too, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport enhanced the realism of Lance-to-Minnesota on Wednesday with one tweet, “As the 49ers weigh options for Trey Lance, calling his hometown team, the Vikings (who were a rumored destination before the Draft) makes sense. Nothing is impossible, but MIN has a backup in Nick Mullens and drafted rookie QB in Jaren Hall. Post-draft, these deals are harder.”
The Vikings employ Kirk Cousins at QB1 but only for one more season, on paper, as of late August. Indeed, Cousins enters an honest-to-goodness contract year in 2023, and if Minnesota doesn’t win a postseason game or two, he could venture on a free-agent world tour next March.
Then, the Vikings would need a quarterback, either promoting this year’s rookie Jaren Hall, pulling off a different trade for a veteran passer, drafting a quarterback next April, or onboarding Lance now from the 49ers with the apparent idea he could be the QB1 solution in purple.
In April, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio claimed, “At this year’s Scouting Combine, there were rumors of a potential Kirk Cousins trade from Minnesota to San Francisco. Those rumors may have come from the reality that the 49ers and Vikings had discussions about another quarterback.”
“Per a league source, the two teams talked about Trey Lance. The source doesn’t know whether that’s currently happening. The Vikings have since restructured the Cousins contract. They’d take a significant cap hit ($38 million) if the Vikings trade Cousins before June 1. But the Vikings need an answer for 2024, and beyond. It’s unclear whether they truly think Lance could be the answer,” Florio continued.
No deal materialized four months ago — but here we are again with Lance-to-Vikings theories as the NDSU alumnus couldn’t dethrone Purdy for a QB1 job or Darnold at QB2.
And per sportsbooks, the Vikings are right there in the mix for any Lance trade.
Last year, Vikings bossman Kwesi Adofo-Mensah fired off three trades for former high-round draft picks, including swaps for T.J. Hockenson, Jalen Reagor, and Ross Blacklock. A deal for Lance would fit his modus operandi.
The Vikings kick off the 2023 regular season in 17 days against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team allegedly in the Lance Sweepstakes as well.
Infamous Ex-Viking Waived by Browns
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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